OK, a bit of a rant post here. I am sure that many of you will appreciate where I am coming from, but there will be many who won't understand my beef.
Every time I have tried to watch events happening at the Olympics, on TV, the picture is all narrow and square. I have these thick black bars down the sides of my screen. I thought maybe my TV was broken, but as it turns out, the problem is not in my TV.
It turns out, that some idiot thinks that in 2004, it is acceptable to make only a ye olde 4:3 aspect ratio feed available to the BBC. Yes, I have all kinds of "smart" modes on my TV, but I refuse to watch in anything other than the source's native ratio. I don't want weightlifters 33% fatter, and swimmers 33% taller.
Next time you are in a TV shop, or the electronics department of a department store, count how many TVs of 21" or larger are NOT widescreen. Hint: you could count them on your fingers, even if you have been convicted of theft in Afghanistan... TWICE.
Now, I am not sure who exactly the fault rests with. Perhaps in Greece widescreen hasn't caught on yet (I know in the US that square screens are still in the vast majority, there are even HDTV standards for them). I assume that the host nation provides TV coverage (otherwise there would be far too many camera crews). Perhaps there should be a stipulation that the host country must have modern equipment in future.
Last week the BBC announced it will produce all of its programming in high-definition by 2010, and is already starting the migration. Is it too much to ask that the ERT (the Greek equivalent) get some new cameras?!
I would like to apply this rant to almost ALL of the 200+ channels on Sky, who buy programmes that definitely have a 16:9 version available yet see fit to broadcast in that dodgy 14:9 "not square, but not widescreen either" ratio. They buy many of them from the BBC and ITV, and increasing numbers of US programmes are in widescreen.
Furthermore, BAH!
Every time I have tried to watch events happening at the Olympics, on TV, the picture is all narrow and square. I have these thick black bars down the sides of my screen. I thought maybe my TV was broken, but as it turns out, the problem is not in my TV.
It turns out, that some idiot thinks that in 2004, it is acceptable to make only a ye olde 4:3 aspect ratio feed available to the BBC. Yes, I have all kinds of "smart" modes on my TV, but I refuse to watch in anything other than the source's native ratio. I don't want weightlifters 33% fatter, and swimmers 33% taller.
Next time you are in a TV shop, or the electronics department of a department store, count how many TVs of 21" or larger are NOT widescreen. Hint: you could count them on your fingers, even if you have been convicted of theft in Afghanistan... TWICE.
Now, I am not sure who exactly the fault rests with. Perhaps in Greece widescreen hasn't caught on yet (I know in the US that square screens are still in the vast majority, there are even HDTV standards for them). I assume that the host nation provides TV coverage (otherwise there would be far too many camera crews). Perhaps there should be a stipulation that the host country must have modern equipment in future.
Last week the BBC announced it will produce all of its programming in high-definition by 2010, and is already starting the migration. Is it too much to ask that the ERT (the Greek equivalent) get some new cameras?!
I would like to apply this rant to almost ALL of the 200+ channels on Sky, who buy programmes that definitely have a 16:9 version available yet see fit to broadcast in that dodgy 14:9 "not square, but not widescreen either" ratio. They buy many of them from the BBC and ITV, and increasing numbers of US programmes are in widescreen.
Furthermore, BAH!
I'm sure it was the exhorbitant cost of the system that scared the beeb off in the end what with Producer Choice and the accountants looming around the corner at the time.
.... But those awful fingernails